Message-Id: <v02110101ad733ccfa29b@[140.186.34.50]>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 12:29:10 -0400
To: Dan Delaney <dgdela01@homer.louisville.edu>
From: murray@spyglass.com (Murray Altheim)
Subject: Re: Netscape tags not HTML3.0 compatible
Cc: www-html@w3.org
Dan Delaney <dgdela01@homer.louisville.edu> writes:
>On Mon, 18 Mar 1996, Ka-Ping Yee wrote:
>> > Subject: HTML3.0 tags not Netscape compatible
>>
>> You mean, "Netscape tags not HTML3.0 compatible", i think. Netscape
>> is not a standards body.
>
> No, that's NOT what he meant. He meant exactly what he said. If
>Netscape, at this point the most popular graphics browser, isn't going to
>support the HTML 3.0 standards which we are attampting to set up, then
>how will we ever get any standards. [...]
I think you might want to back up a bit and do some homework on HTML 3.0.
It existed only as an Internet Draft (which had absolutely no status as a
standard; read the intro to any draft:
> Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
> months and can be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents
> at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet drafts as reference
> material or to cite them as other than as "work in progress".
The HTML 3.0 draft specification expired early last fall. It is not
considered a standard, never has been, and never will be. Work on 3.0 has
been divided into various proposals, and as stated above, it is
inappropriate to refer to I-Ds as standards. Discussion on HTML 3.0 has
ended. Elvis has left the building.
>Are we just waisting our time?
>Netscape seems to have conveniently ignored certain HTML tags which they
>don't want to use. They talk all sweet and innocent "Netscape remains
>committed to supporting HTML 3.0" But we all know that that's bullshit.
Enough already on the Netscape bashing, and read the existing
documentation, starting at:
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/
>The question is: will there ever really be a standard which all browsers
>follow?
And to answer your question: no -- simply because the market won't sit
still and allow the language to stabilize.
Murray
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Murray Altheim, Program Manager
Spyglass, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts
email: <mailto:murray@spyglass.com>
http: <http://www.stonehand.com/murray/murray.htm>